Encyclopedia of

Mae Jemison Biography

Mae Jemison, a doctor, was the first African American woman to be selected
for the National Aeronautic and Space Administration's
(NASA's) astronaut training program and was the first African
American woman to travel in space.

Early life and education

Mae Carol Jemison was born on October 17, 1956, in Decatur, Alabama, the
youngest child of Charlie Jemison, a roofer and carpenter, and Dorothy
(Green) Jemison, an elementary school teacher. Her parents were
supportive and encouraging of all of their children's talents and
abilities; Jemison's sister, Ada Jemison Bullock, became a child
psychiatrist, and her brother, Charles Jemison, became a real estate
broker. The family moved to Chicago, Illinois, when Jemison was three to
take advantage of better educational opportunities there.

Throughout her early school years, Jemison spent many hours in her
school library reading about all subjects related to science, especially
astronomy. From a young age she was interested in space travel. During
her time at Morgan Park High School, however, she became interested in
pursuing a career in engineering. When she graduated in 1973 as an honor
student, she entered Stanford University on a National Achievement
Scholarship.

Jemison pursued a double major at Stanford, and in 1977 she received a
bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and in African and
Afro-American Studies. Just as she had been in high school, Jemison was
very involved in outside activities, including dance and theater
productions, and she served as head of the Black Student Union. Upon
graduation she entered Cornell University Medical College to work toward
a medical degree.

During her years at Cornell, Jemison found time to expand her horizons
by visiting and studying in Cuba and Kenya and working at a Cambodian
refugee camp in Thailand. When she obtained her degree in medicine in
1981, she received her on-thejob training at Los Angeles
County/University of Southern California Medical Center and later
established a general practice. For the next two and a half years, she
was the area Peace Corps medical officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia,
where she also taught and did medical research.

Following a dream

After her return to the United States in 1985, Jemison made a career
change and decided to follow a dream she had had for a long time. In
October of that year she applied for admission to NASA's
astronaut training program. The selection process was delayed after the
explosion of the space shuttle
Challenger
in January 1986, but when she reapplied a year later, Jemison was one
of fifteen candidates chosen from a field of about two thousand. She
became the first African American woman ever admitted into the astronaut
training program.

After more than a year of training, Jemison became an astronaut with the
title of science-mission specialist, a job that would make her
responsible for conducting crew-related scientific experiments on the
space shuttle. On September 12, 1992, with six other astronauts, Jemison
flew into space aboard the
Endeavour
on mission STS-47. During her eight days in space, she conducted
weightlessness and motion sickness experiments on the
crew and on herself before returning to Earth on September 20.
Following her historic flight, Jemison noted that society should
recognize how much both women and members of other minority groups can
contribute if given the opportunity.

Honors and new challenges

In recognition of her accomplishments, Jemison received the 1988 Essence
Science and Technology Award, was named Gamma Sigma Gamma Woman of the
Year in 1990, received the Ebony Black Achievement Award in 1992, and
received a Montgomery Fellowship from Dartmouth College in 1993. Also in
1992 a public school in Detroit, Michigan—the Mae C. Jemison
Academy—was named after her. Jemison is a member of the American
Medical Association, the American Chemical Society, and the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, and she served on the Board
of Directors of the World Sickle Cell Foundation from 1990 to 1992. She
is also a committee member of the American Express Geography Competition
and a board member of the Center for the Prevention of Childhood
Malnutrition.

After leaving the astronaut corps in March 1993, Jemison established the
Jemison Group, a company that seeks to research, develop, and market
advanced technologies (scientific ways of achieving a practical
purpose). She is also a professor at Dartmouth College, where she
started the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing
Countries. Jemison also created The Earth We Share, a science camp for
twelve-to sixteen-year-olds that helps improve students'
problem-solving skills. She remains a popular

Mae Jemison.
Courtesy of

U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration

.

public speaker, and in 2001 her autobiography,
Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments from My Life,
was published.

For More Information

Gelletly, LeeAnne.
Mae Jemison.
Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2002.

Jemison, Mae.
Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments from My Life.
New York: Scholastic, 2001.